Ideas DO matter.

When I hear people criticize our current president for being too ideological, I cringe. It's not a matter of being ideological "per se", it's a matter of good ideas versus bad ones.

The American revolution and the Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights are strongly rooted in ideology and the concept of individual rights. (Yes, as you pointed out correctly yesterday, not consistently, as many of our Founding Fathers were slave owners). Ultimately, it's a matter of whether a framework of ideas protect things like (for instance) property rights. So proper ideas are there to protect individuals, not to make the world more dangerous.

You make a good point. When I think of ideologues, I tend to think in the present and the lunatic fringes on both the extreme left and the extreme right - bad ideology. I forgot to think about our history.